New York, New York, so good they named it twice

For 38 Year 10 and 11 students (and 4 members of staff), February Half Term became an eye-popping week of excitement in the Big Apple. At 7:00am, Bishop’s Castle air was filled with excitement and anticipation, as we began our trip across the pond to New York.

Upon landing, the first landmark hit was the iconic Empire State Building, which we quickly ascended for a night time view of NYC – a view unequalled by any other city. As if the breath-taking skyline wasn’t enough, this experience was made all the more memorable by the sheer amount of GIFs Miss de la Mare forced us to partake in!

The next morning, we ventured around the corner from our hostel to Bocca Bliss – a place well-known for ‘creating fanatics’! There, we crammed our boxes with mountains of food, setting us up for rest of the day.

To work off the calories we’d just consumed, we hit the mean streets of midtown Manhattan for a mere four hours, with our tour guide, Jared (and his trusty lightsabre). It wasn’t long before Charlie Kinsey delivered a puntastic comment, renaming Jared ‘Luke Guidewalker’. Genius.

At the first sight of Times Square, students were plunged into the vibrant cityscape of neon billboards, mass crowds and a scene so familiar from films and TV, yet so alien in reality. And what were the students interested in? Shopping! It was difficult to tear the girls away from the vice-like grip of Sephora – a shop Abi Bebb, Sophie Davies and Megan Butler (and Jack Finn!) could have happily spent the whole NYC trip in!

After a slice of pizza or two for sustenance, we headed over to visit the very tall, very showy and very golden Trump Tower, where George Lawrence and Tom Swancott purchased their ironic (or maybe not) Trump memorabilia.